When was the last time you were flying and actually listened to the pilot or cabin crew member rattle off the information about arrival and transfer gates. These days, you probably have that gate info anyway because your phone, laptop, tablet, watch, garter belt, and pinky ring are all connected to the internet. Even if you didn’t have the foresight to sort out this info on your own, you’re probably not listening because you’ve got your headphones on and don’t want to be bothered.
Which is why almost all major U.S. carriers ended this practice years ago. Only American Airlines still makes these announcements on a regular basis, but not after today. Starting tomorrow, AA passengers won’t have to ignore those seemingly endless lists of connecting gates because the airline won’t be reading them anymore.
“There’s a lot of ways to get that information, and it wasn’t necessarily helpful to provide that on the airplane,” an airline rep explains to Bloomberg.
In fact, says the rep, some passengers were annoyed by hearing an announcement coming over the speakers, then pausing whatever they were watching or listening to, only to find out that it was a bunch of gate numbers that probably didn’t affect their lives in a bit.
“Some people certainly viewed it as an interruption,” quoth the rep, “so for those folks, we’ll stop interrupting them.”
Good, now if you can do something about that screaming 4-year-old two rows up. The one eating a tuna salad sandwich. Yeah, him.
by Chris Morran via Consumerist
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